An Unearthly Child (sometimes referred to as 100,000 BC) is the first serial of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC TV in four weekly parts from 23 November to 14 December 1963.
At Coal Hill School, teachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) have concerns about pupil Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), who has an alien outlook on England. When the teachers visit her address to investigate, they encounter a police box and hear Susan’s voice inside.
An elderly man (William Hartnell) arrives and refuses to let the teachers inside the police box. They force their way inside to find Susan in a technologically advanced control room that is larger than the police box exterior.
Susan explains that the object is a time and space machine called the TARDIS and the old man is her grandfather, who reveals that he and his granddaughter are exiles from their own planet. Refusing to let Ian and Barbara leave, he sets the TARDIS in flight and the ship goes through time and space to the Stone Age.
Za (Derek Newark), the leader of a primitive Paleolithic tribe, attempts to make fire. A young woman called Hur (Alethea Charlton) warns him that if he fails to do so, the stranger called Kal (Jeremy Young) will be made leader.
After exiting the TARDIS, the unnamed old man, whom Ian and Barbara refer to as the Doctor, is ambushed by Kal, when he witnesses him light a match. Kal takes the Doctor back to the tribe and threatens to kill him if he does not make fire; Ian, Barbara and Susan intervene, but the group is imprisoned in a large cave.
With the help of Old Mother (Eileen Way), who believes that fire will bring death to the tribe, they escape from the settlement but are intercepted and recaptured before reaching the TARDIS. Kal says they will be sacrificed if they do not make fire.
While Ian tries to start a fire, Kal enters the cave and attacks Za, but is killed. Ian gives a burning torch to Za, who shows it to the tribe and is declared leader. Susan notices that placing a skull over a burning torch makes it appear alive.
When the tribe enters the cave, they are faced with several burning skulls, and are terrified, allowing the group to flee to the TARDIS and escape through time and space to a silent and unknown forest. Unnoticed by the crew, the radiation meter rises to “Danger”.
- Episode 01: An Unearthly Child
- Episode 02: The Cave of Skulls
- Episode 03: The Forest of Fear
- Episode 04: The Firemaker
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To view the list of other Doctor Who serials, please click this link
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